Originally, I was scheduled to have six chemotherapy infusions. If I was to have more than that, today would have been the day I got the seventh. Thankfully, that did not happen.
We simply met with the oncologist today, to have a brief discussion about where we go from here. He feels that my PSA level (now 0.26, which is great because it was once over 100!) is a good indication that my treatments were effective. He does not feel the need to continue chemo at this time (YAY!) but won't rule out ever having to go through it again (BOO).
Each of the various doctors that I've seen during this nightmare have reminded me that my cancer is not just "simple" prostate cancer. Especially since it spread to my hips, spine, and a few other places, they have all stated (more than I really wanted to hear) that my cancer is terminal and that they cannot completely cure me of it. So, while I'm very happy to stop chemotherapy, at least for a while, I'm still having a very hard time knowing that this disease will come back to try to kill me again.
If you define "chemotherapy" as only the drugs given to me by infusion, I'm now done, at least for the time being. However, I will remain on some other types of chemotherapy. I will remain on Aberaterone, a hormone blocker, that I take orally every morning. Prescribed with that is a low dose of Prednisone which helps tamp down my body's reactions to Aberaterone. I'll also continue to get Prolia injections once a month. This is to help strengthen my bones, particularly where the cancer has attacked them. Finally, I will continue to get an Eligard injection every three months. Eligard is designed to keep my body from making more testosterone. I will also continue to take numerous vitamin supplements to counteract the negative side-effects of all these drugs.
The emphasis on lowering and blocking testosterone is because that's the "food" that this type of cancer likes. I suspect that the incredibly low energy that I'm still feeling to this day has as much to do with all that testosterone blocking as it does the Docetaxel infusions I've been getting for the past six months. This worries me because only the Docetaxel is being paused. I don't feel like I have much energy, certainly not enough to do much exercise, yet exercise is what I need most right now. (See my previous journal entry for one of many reasons why I feel that way.)
Don't get me wrong. I'm happy to be done with the infusions, at least for now. Docetaxel was like some sort of poison that, at its worst, truly made me feel like I was dying in several different ways. Even its lingering effects, some of which are still at play in my body, seriously degrade my quality of life. I just feel like it would be nice to have this nightmare end. Instead, I've just leveled up enough to be on more of a maintenance program than a full scale attack.
I still have cancer, then, just much less of it. No one has yet to give me any kind of prognosis for survival other than to say "years". When I try to press for something more specific, no one is willing to give me an answer. The idea that a resurgence of this aggressive form of cancer could come back to get me in just a couple or few years haunts me, and I'm pretty sure it will continue to haunt me. I don't know how to make peace with it. I guess I'm just going to have to get even better at living in the moment because it appears that my moments are numbered.